Will Obama’s New Attitude about Gay Marriage Really Make a Difference in Maryland?

Looks like Barack Obama’s “evolving” views on gay marriage have finally completed their evolution. The president “came out” in favor of same sex marriage after his vice president went off script on a talk show declaring his own absolute comfort with marriage equality.

With Maryland anticipating a photo-finish referendum on gay marriage in November, and with much of this bluest of blue state’s indecisiveness on the issue credited to socially conservative black voters, speculation abounds as to whether the president’s new attitude (which, by the way, is actually his old attitude) will sway African-Americans.

The Daily Beast has declared that it already is, but as much as identity and affinity do to shape a voter’s views, treating the “black vote,” and especially “the black Christian vote,” as a political monolith seems foolish, and counter to what we’ve seen already. Baltimore’s Rev. Larry Brumfield has been very vocal in his support of marriage equality, as has Delman Coates, pastor to the 8,000-member Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Prince George’s County. And those are religious leaders!

Either way it will be interesting – to say the least – to see what happens in November.